Page 29 of Whispers of Sin
Brooklyn Sloane
December 2023
Thursday — 9:38am
Thesoftglowofthe morning light filtered through the Airbnb’s frost-encrusted windows, casting a serene golden haze over the kitchen. Brook stood next to the counter, cradling a steaming mug of coffee after having gotten maybe four hours of sleep. Yesterday had been a whirlwind—driving back to D.C., giving a lecture to her college students, swinging by the office, and then taking twenty minutes to collect her evening gown and accessories for the black-tie event at the art exhibit. Out of caution, she’d brought along a second dress.
Brook had driven back to Harbor at eleven o’clock last night.
“Morning.”
Theo entered the kitchen, his muscular frame clad in his usual workout sweats.
“You left without me,” Brook said as she turned away from the beautiful sunrise. “I would have jogged a few miles with you.”
“You hate jogging in the cold,” Theo said as he reached into the refrigerator to grab a container of yogurt. “Besides, you were too engrossed in your profile, which means you figured something else out about the unsub. I wasn’t about to interrupt your process.”
Brook had realized something about the killer, but she’d yet to upload the information into the software program. She’d wanted the morning to work things through in her mind before guiding the team in a specific direction. Technically, it was a path that they were already taking in tonight’s tentative gameplan.
“Has Bit found any connection between the Walsh and the Cary families?” Theo asked as he peeled back the lid of the yogurt and spooned the contents into a blender. He then reached for one of the bananas that he’d purchased yesterday. “Jacob knew that he would be a match, which means the connection is there somewhere.”
“Nothing yet, but Bit thinks that the wife’s family could be connected to mine. I don’t recall either family ever being mentioned during my childhood.” Brook took another sip of her coffee. There was a slight chill in the kitchen, unlike the living room where the gas fireplace had been on for the past hour. “I instructed Bit to look into my parents.”
Theo paused his movements upon hearing her statement.
“You think one of your parents had an affair?”
It had taken Brook over two years to get to the point where she accepted having not only colleagues, but friends. Theo had become her best friend, and that wasn’t something that she’d had since Cara Jordan and Sally Pearson. The close connection that Brook and Theo had was different yet the same. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed such a friendship until Theo had methodically and patiently forged one with her.
“No one wants to think that their mother or father had an affair, but I’m not going to turn a blind eye to the possibility, either,” Brook murmured with a frown. Would such a revelation taint the way she remembered her parents? Unfortunately, everything about her childhood had been destroyed by Jacob. “Speaking of parents, how are your mom and dad?”
“Dad is settling into his new position,” Theo replied as he finished adding the banana into the blender, along with a large scoop of protein powder. “Mom is enjoying her retirement, although I’m not sure I would call what she’s doing retirement.”
“Did I tell you that your mother has agreed to give me a session the next time that I’m in New…”
Theo turned on the blender so that the noise drowned out Brook’s voice. She hid her smile behind her coffee cup. After Theo’s mother retired as an NYPD officer, she had decided to teach yoga…with goats.
Apparently, goats were a thing in the fitness world.
“What’s not to like about goats?” Brook asked before she was once again being drowned out by the blender. She waited patiently for Theo to turn off the appliance before following up with another question. “On a serious note, why were you in such a good mood last week?”
“What are you talking about?” Theo asked with amusement as he poured his smoothie into a glass. “I’m always in a good mood.”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Brook countered, wondering if Theo had run into Detective Hadley Soerig. The two of them had dated on and off for a while, but Hadley had made it known that she wasn’t ready for anything serious. “Spill.”
Theo set the blender in the sink before wrapping his hand around the glass. He didn’t pick it up, though. Instead, he leaned his hip against the counter and finally revealed the reason that he’d been smiling all last week.
“There’s this woman who I pass by every morning on my jog. One day, I was running a few minutes late. Out of the blue, she made a comment that I was slowing down. We’re now in a competition to see who can reach a specific bench on the trail before six o’clock in the morning.”
Brook was glad to see that Theo was moving on from Hadley. He’d gotten into a rut, and that wasn’t like him. He was at that point in his life when he was ready to settle down, and all Hadley had done was postpone his plans.
“Let me guess,” Brook said as she heard the doorbell ring. She’d purposefully delayed this morning’s briefing so that she could finish typing her notes, which she still needed to upload into the software program. “You left this mysterious woman a note on the bench that said you would be out of town on business. You’re killing me, Theo. That is like a scene out of a rom-com.”
“What can I say? I’m a romantic at heart.”
Brook was prevented from saying anything else when Detective Caleb Hartley appeared in the doorway. He didn’t appear to be in a good mood, and she got the sense that his anger was about to be misplaced.
“Martin Kingston called Chief Rogan.”